Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I moved to a new house, top of a hill, with farm land across from my driveway.

This is our second winter, and my MTD is not up to the task of clearing the packed snow that blows into my yard, sometimes daily.

I have been looking for a couple weeks, and had made up my mind to get the Honda. I had been to the Yamaha dealer previously, but they were not willing to deal.

Well today a new twist, I went back to Yamaha, and was offered the YS928J for the same price as the HS928TC.

Specs are very similar, with some different features. The Honda has full Joystick control on the chute, and is 100 lbs lighter.

The Yamaha has plastic coated chute, manual up/down. Has no shear pins, which may be a bonus, if the 'Shock Protection' works correctly. Also the Yamaha is quiter.

I have been reviewing this site, however, there is limited information on the Yamahas, likely because they just came back to Canada in 2009 (15 year Hiatus) and I am not sure if they are available in the U.S.

Has anyone out there used these models? Can you offer an Opinion?

Steve_Cebu wrote:

The specs are for 16 meters, which is about 52 feet. So I think under ideal conditions, it would hit that!

Your Toro is throwing very well, I think they would be close, from what I could judge.

Steve_Cebu wrote:
Then you should line it with metal.    Heck, most of the impeller housing plastic too.  I'm surprised David didn't make fun of that a while back. 

Speaking of which, the chute not David, I see it's pretty easy for you to change the direction of the chute on the Toro.   Do you feel any resistance when the snow is blowing through it?  On my 421Q, it's pretty hard to change the chute direction while blowing heavy snow.  I either have to slow down or stop to rotate the chute. 

I had an MTD with an all plastic chute. Once the top part was clogging up with sticky snow so I gave it a bit of a cuff with the back of my mittened hand. The whole thing fell off the blower. It wasn't broken, just had to be re-installed. I always said that in one small way that blower was like a high performance race car....I'd use it once and then have to rebuild it for the next event. At a retail price of about $1100 + tax I couldn't expect too much of that old MTD. Now I've got an Ariens that ruined most of $2500 and it falls apart too. Not much plastic on it though, i will say that. 

Rubinew, congrats on the Yamaha, that is one wicked looking machine!! I'm envious.

billywhiskers wrote:

Well I can tell you this, if I experience similar issues with this Yamaha, like you have had with your Ariens, I will SNAP!

This unit seems well made, like a tank, so I expect it to wear well.

aa335 wrote:

Line it with metal he says  I'm real happy with my plastic chute sure it rattles a little bit but it never binds. I think my impeller housing is metal tho.

It's very easy to change the direction of the snow stream but you KNOW there is snow going through it. You can feel it as you move the chute, but it's not difficult. It definitely has a resistance and the more snow you are moving the more resistance it has. My wife has more trouble moving it than I do but sometimes she gets nervous about hitting things in the driveway or going too fast so that plays into it as well. As you can see in the video I don't have to slow down or stop. When I do it's because of the driveway. The EOD is on an angle and all of my driveway is uphill. The wind usually blows from one side and always in the winter but no breeze in the summer.

aa335 wrote:
DavidNJ was too busy making fun of the reinforcing on the load bearing metal parts to notice the plastic parts.

Well, he was probably busy making this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5jnyu5Muc0&feature=related

aa335 wrote:
Oh yea, forgot he made that video.